Does your baby use colour to recognise objects?

The recognition of objects is a crucial part of a baby’s development. Without it, understanding the world around them would be almost impossible. Object recognition involves the use of many different cues, one of which is colour. Infants have been found to look  longer at objects that are presented in their natural colour (e.g., a red strawberry) as opposed to an unnatural colour (e.g., a blue strawberry).  It has therefore been assumed that infants prefer looking at natural coloured objects because they are familiar to them, but is this really what is going on? 

Our current study explores a number of different questions relating to the role of colour in infant object recognition. For example: How important is colour in object recognition? At what age do infants begin to use colour to recognise objects? Do infants really look longer at objects presented in their natural colour and if so does this mean they have a preference for naturally coloured objects? Do we get the same effects across a range of different types of objects (e.g., faces, fruit, flowers, animals)?

In the current study babies are shown pairs of faces on a computer monitor and their pattern of looking is recorded with a special camera. We then see whether babies look longer at faces presented in their natural or unnatural colour and whether their patterns of looking are similar to adults. The study aims to increase our understanding of how babies see and interact with the world, and also aims to provide us with information about the role of colour in object recognition.